Christine's LIT2932 Thoughts

class review

christinehball — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:37:57 +0000

When I first started this class I had no idea there were so many different types of plagiarism. Through the books we have read and the proposal assignment I have learned so much about plagiarism. In high school I thought that plagiarism was just stealing someone’s work. I have learned that there are so many different types of plagiarism. In the academic world plagiarism is taken very serious. In different school everyone has a different view of what plagiarism is. At UNF our plagiarism statement leaves a lot out, as we all know. In the academic code there are no specific examples for us students to reference. The definition that UNF gives for plagiarism is two short sentences. The students deserve a better description of what the university wants them to follow. I have also learned that in our everyday lives there is plagiarism. In books, in movies, in news papers, and even in art and music there is plagiarism. People like ideas and they copy them and put a new spin on it and call it their own, but it is still considered plagiarism. Before I took this class I had no idea that “copying” others ideas was a form of plagiarism. I have learned a lot of useful things and met a lot of cool people. I am very happy I took this class.

The last part of the New Moon review 3 of 3

christinehball — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:50:39 +0000

After I saw the movie for the second time I realized I had question. I had questions about the movie, about the plot line. So I saw the movie again, for the third time. The third time the one thing that really stuck out to be was the scene where Jacob brings Bella home after he has reveled himself to her. They are talking about his fear of being around her. His fear of one day accidently losing his temper like Sam did and harm Bella. As they start talking he tells Bella he is scared that one day he might disappear. I kept thinking and thinking about it and I just do not understand what he means by it. I thought that maybe Jake was worried about losing who he was before he was a werewolf. Maybe he was talking about one day people wont need him. I have no idea, it has been bugging be since Saturday night. I keep thinking about other love stories and seeing if that might help me decided what he meant by it.
Despite my first reaction of the movie I have decided I love it! Even though the book seemed so much better I began to realize I like them both for very different reasons. The book was more detailed and has a lot more scenes and really developed the characters more. The movie was fun and developed some characters differently. The movie also had Jacob and his wolf pack looking pretty nice, so that definitely help the movie with positive points!

New Moon cont… 2 of 3

christinehball — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:49:50 +0000

Jake had this protective shield that allowed Bella to be who she was, a clumsy but intelligent girl. I felt when Bella was around the Cullen’s that she had to either blame her self for their pain, or prove to them that she was some one who could keep their secret. When she was around Jake she was Bella, not a delightful snack. I feel that Bella knew that Jake was better for her, but her heart would always no matter what always be with Edward. Bella started off using Jake to fix the bikes so that she could see Edward. Then as they spent more time together and she realized that Jake filled the void in her heart that Edward left she grew feelings for him. This part of the story shows the classic love triangle. If this is not derivation from all classic love stories I don’t know what is. Jacob is the other man that will never have Bella’s full heart. With every love stories simple love triangle there is always something that differs. With New Moon Jacob is a werewolf and Edward is a vampire. It is safer for Bella to be with Jacob, Jacob make the most since. Jacob does not have to movie every ten or so years so no one suspects him of being different. Jacob will be less likely to hurt Bella. Even though Jacob is the obviously better choice for Bella she will always chose Edward. This is also a classic love story derivation. The girl always chose’s the guy who may be a little more dangerous and a lot less convenient.

My thoughts on New Moon!!! 1 of 3

christinehball — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:45:05 +0000

New Moon!
So being the crazed twilight fan that I am I have already seen New Moon three times. I have to admit the first time I saw New Moon I was less than impressed. I was not a happy twilight fan by my own fault. The first time I went I was with my mom, my sister, and we dragged my brother along with us. I sat next to my sister, who is also completely obsessed with the twilight saga as well, and through the whole movie we related it to the book. That was a bad idea. No matter how much money is put into a movie, or how good the actors are, the book will always be better. The book will always be better because their author can add so much detail in. The author has to describe every little detail to be able to fully inform the reader or the scene. Movies do have their advantages as well, they allow the mind not be as engaged. With some movies you can be a little more relaxed, they do not require as much attention as some books do. Any way back to New Moon, so I saw it for the second time on Saturday night. This time I went into the movie in the mind-set of, ‘just enjoy the MOVIE.’ As I watched the movie I started to love it more and more as the minutes went by. I all of the sudden saw all these different meanings and almost hidden plots. Every since the first movie I had my mind set on the fact that Kristen Stewart was a horrible actress. I did not like they way she presented Bella. To me Bella was this clumsy girl but she was not dumb my any means. Kristen made her seem as if Bella was young and stupid. I hated the way she always looked like she was either hiding something or she was in pain. As I watched this movie for the second time I still thought she was a bad actress but I did realize she played Bella a lot better in this movie. I am sure I a biased because I am team Jacob, but I thought Kristen did a good job of playing Bella when she was around Jacob. In the book I felt as if Bella could really be herself around Jake

Twilight

christinehball — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:56:07 +0000

Twilight seems so be a love hate book. There are always strong feeling suronding The book or the movie Twilight. Either people love it and can’t get enough of it or they hate it. The story is about a girl who falls in love with a vampire and her life is endangered by their love. Bella is a typical teen ager that is shy and hates high school. She moved to live with her dad in Forks Washington. When she moved their she met Edward, a vampire that no one knew about. All the girls thought Edward was attractive but she was also scary at the same time. Edward Knew Bella was different the first time they met. Edward can read people’s minds, but he could not seem to hear Bella’s thoughts. A few weeks went by and Edward went missing. As you find out in the book Edward cannot stand Bella’s scent it is too sweet and causes him to want to suck her blood. As the book goes by Bella finds out Edwards true self and they begin to have a relationship of forbidden love. Edwards Family, the Cullens, are happy Edward found someone but scared their secret might be reveled. So as time goes on Bella decides she wants to become a vampire. As the story goes on Bella gets in trouble with other vampires and Edwards family must save her. They go to great lengths to save her because Edward loves her and also they do not want their secret getting out.
I really like the twilight series. It was my first series of books I read, and it also helped me escape from reality for a bit.

Plagiarism

christinehball — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:45:04 +0000

When I first started this class I thought I knew exactly what plagiarism was. I went to a high school that had a strict honor code policy that was very strict on plagiarism. Once I started reading the material for this class I realized this question of what is plagiarism has been talked about and argued for a really long time. Plagiarism is not a new concept. I always thought that plagiarism was so cut and dry. A student that copies another person’s work and does not cite it was plagiarism. There is so much more to plagiarism then just copying text.

In our everyday world there is plagiarism in music, advertisement, there is political plagiarism, and even plagiarism in movies and books. For books and movies there can only be so many new concepts to work with. There is going to have to derivations for new books and movies to be able to come out. The industry would die if there was not derivation. So where are we going to draw the line with plagiarism? Is derivation ok but copying another person’s text is not? Are they not both plagiarism? Are we going to take the time to measure each case of plagiarism and make sure they did not plagiarize too much? I think that plagiarism is so confusing! I do think that there has to be different degrees of plagiarism. When someone copies another person’s work off the internet and claims it as their own and gets a grade for the paper; that is a serious offense. Also in everyday life when a musician steals a piece of music from a fellow musician and makes money off of it; that is a serious offense. The two examples of serious offenses should not be treated the same as lesser offenses. A lesser offense would be an example like Twilight, a derivation. Twilights love story can be seen as a derivation of other previous love stories.

“My Word”…My Feedback… Continued

christinehball — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:35:47 +0000

The majority of UNF students have worked just as hard as the students that have chosen private schools, but we have different priorities. Blum cannot accurately compare this study to public university students. This is where I find fault with her study. “My Words” was an interesting insight to a professor’s view on plagiarism. As I said earlier Blum was once a student, as have all professors, and they know the obstacles students have to face. College is not just studying and furthering our education, it is about finding out who we are as people. This is an environment where we have enough room to explore, but we also still have a safety net to catch us when we fall. Students have to socialize and find out who they are, and this is where some students fall into the situations that generate poor decisions. Students sometimes find them self’s in a crunch for time and feel that plagiarism is the only route. I am not saying that this is an excuse and in this situation it is correct, but I am saying that I do not think that all students plagiarize out of laziness. There are always going to be some students who do plagiarize because they are too lazy to do the work. Some students that are not lazy, but feel they do not have enough time to finish the assignment find them self’s turning to plagiarism.

“My Word”… My Feedback

christinehball — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:33:56 +0000

In the book “My Word” written by Susan Blum there is a very interesting incite on plagiarism. In the second chapter Blum basically states that no idea is new or original. Every literary work is some how derived from something else. Blum uses examples in her book to make her point and ideas and ‘original’ concepts. One of her examples of original work is copyright. Copyright tries to prevent people from stealing or plagiarizing someone else’s work. Copyright can be used for books, trade make symbols, all the way to music. Even though people have created and use copyright, Blum still says that everything from song, poems, invention ideas and even chords in music are all plagiarized. Nothing can stop this plagiarism because no idea is new. What can stop plagiarism in the literary word in citations? Citation is not just for the academic word or just for the literary word; people can give credit if they know where their idea originated. Copyright does a good job at helping distinguish people for their ides or inventions, but are those ideas and inventions even really theirs? I feel that Blum’s tone in this book is sometimes laid back and some times uptight. In her book Blum does a study on plagiarism using her university as case study. Blum got a group of students to help her and they started asking questions on cheating and plagiarism. Blum was understanding of where the students are coming form because she was once a student her self but she is also a professor now and had to be tough on plagiarist.
During her study Blum made interesting finds. Blum’s study was on private university students. These students have been conditioned since they were children to go to these elite schools. They have worked hard since grade school to get the grades for these private universities. This is not to say that public university students have not worked really hard, the preparations were different. I found Blum’s findings to be familiar. I went
to a private high school with people who’s parents have been preparing them since elementary school to get into schools like Notre Dome, and Harvard. I was not one of the students who has been working towards a certain private university. I wanted to learn and get a good education but I knew that a private college was not the only way. Now that I am at UNF, my first public school in my student life, I realize it is not that different. Maybe because the fact is it is a University, and about 90% of the students that are here want to learn and get an education, that it is not a good representation of a public high school. No matter what high schools are like I feel that UNF students do not match up to Private University students. ( continued on next blog)

Hello world!

christinehball — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:08:38 +0000

In the story of Pierre Menard the author Jorge Luis Borges defends Menards work against the accusations of plagiarism. Pierre Menard was accused with plagiarizing many different works but the piece in which Borges chooses to focus on is Menards version of Don Quixote by Cervantes. Menard was accused with taking the idea and also a few word for word sentences. An example of this is page three about mid way down the page. Menard copied Cervantes line word for word, and Borges goes on to say that they are different in style and that is how it is not plagiarism.
Borges reason for why Menard copied Cervantes work. In the passage Borges is saying that Menard did not intend to copy Cervantes work, he merely wanted to re-invent the story. Borges said that rewriting the story was a much greater task then Cervantes had when he creating it. As the explanation of Menards work goes on Borges starts to explain how Menards work is better quality then Cervantes, so that is why it is okay that Menard plagiarized. In different parts of the passage Borges starts to tear down Cervantes original work so that Menards work looks more exquisite and challenging.
Through out the whole passage Borges uses two different techniques to help turn the readers favor towards Pierre Menard. The first was his bias relationship. In this passage Borges basically vouches for Pierre. He wants the reader to trust him and trust his judgment in character. Throughout the passage he uses very flattering terms to describe either Menard himself, or Menards actions. The second technique is confusion. The way this passage is written it is confusing. Borges uses this technique so that his audience does not catch him and know that he is defending someone who is not even real. This Pierre Menard character is completely fiction.
When I read this passage the first time it made no since to me at all. As I began to read it a few more times Borges techniques became more and more apparent. I actually became angered with this author defending plagiarism. I feel like there is no reason for coping someone’s work, and if you do want to rewrite the idea give credit to the original author. As I began to realize that that this character was fiction I started getting even more confused because now there was no true need for this defense against plagiarism. I have thought about that question for a while and I still do not understand why.

Hannah Ball